Pros
battle system, story, characters, replayability, bla bla bla

Cons
incomplete story, buggy as hell, graphical glitches.

The Bottom Line
If you can tolerate the constant bugs and slightly incomplete story then you will be rewarded by one of the best RPGs ever programmed.

It's a general rule in these circles that whenever a computer game is tied into anything other than another game then the results are generally sub standard. Sadly examples such as <b>Goldeneye</b>, <b><a href="http://www.epinions.com/content_172394712708">The Chronicles Of Riddick</a></b>, or <b>Transformers</b> are the exceptions to an otherwise unbreakable rule. <b>Star Wars</b> tie ins are different though. Games based on George Lucas popular film saga are, by and large, incredibly fun games. Personally I suspect that a large part of this is down to the fact that <b>Star Wars</b> is now much more than just a film, and games like <b>Rogue Squadron</b>, or the <b>Jedi Knight</b> series work in conjuncture with the comics, novels, action figures and art work to create a mythology so intricate that the universal struggle portrayed in the films plays a very small role in it's history.

2003's game of the year <b>Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic</b> is the strongest example of this I've ever seen. It was a Star Wars game with a difference, an RPG (Role Playing Game) that focused less on the action, and more on the inner struggle against the dark side that lies at the very core of the Star Wars legend. Now 2 years later we have the sequel <b>Star Wars: Knights Of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords</b> and the question burning on the minds of fans everywhere is; will this game live up to its predecessor?

The biggest concern for most fans was how the new story would tie into the old story when the actions of the player dictated whether people lived or died, and whether or not the main character saved the republic or conquered the galaxy as a Sith Lord. <b>The Sith Lords</b> actually takes place about 4 years later (<i>the first one was set about 4000 years before episode one</i>) and initially appears to have nothing in common beyond a few fleeting history lessons. As you start the game you'll be given a few dialogue options that enable you to tell your story, and this will dictate how the conversations will develop later in the game. Other than that the story has developed as such. Shortly after the events of the first game Revan disappeared and a new Sith threat emerged. This new Sith were different, attacking through the force itself and absorbing the life energies of force users to all but obliterate the remaining Jedi order. Now all that remains are rumors of Jedi spotted throughout the galaxy, and you, a former Jedi who had joined Revan in the Mandalorian wars, but who failed to join him when he fell to the dark side. Your connection to the force was severed at the end of the war and the Jedi order exiled you to wander the outer rim alone. Now all these years later you find yourself waking on a decimated mining facility with no lightsabre, no force powers, and a fearsome Sith Lord hunting you down.

There has been some criticism in regard to this opening level, but in my opinion there couldn't have been a more perfect introduction to this darker chapter. As the Jedi outcast you have to try and escape the mining facility, whilst simultaneously using holo recordings and datapads to uncover just whatever the hell has happened there. Aiding you in this quest are T3 (<i>The R2D2 type droid from the original</i>), Krea (<i>a mysterious force user who adheres to neither Jedi or Sith beliefs, but respects anyone who can analyze the best way to manipulate a situation for their own ends</i>) who decides to become your new master and re-awaken you to the force, and a prisoner of the mining facility named Atton.

Anyone whose experienced the original game should be able to jump right into this investigation, and new players to the series should have no problem getting to grips with the game mechanics. Each character you meet will talk to you, and for everything they say you will be given a selection of responses. These can range from "Thanks for the advice." to "Shut your mouth, I don't need your help." and each response carries with it the consequences of your choice. On the surface it effects only your alignment between the light and dark side of the force, but of far more importance is the way it effects your influence over the character in question. This is a new feature to the series where the amount of time spent with a character is of less importance than the way you treat them. Forcing you to think about who your are speaking to so that you can select the responses that will enable them to trust you enough to open up, and eventually allow you to train them in the ways of the force. What I found most clever in this regard was the fact that you can now effect a characters own force alignment based on how clever you are in selecting your responses when they challenge your decisions.

This is important because a characters force alignment will have a direct impact on which force powers you will want to teach them. A Jedi never strikes in attack, only defense, while a Sith values the more immediate path of raw power. Although it is possible for any character to learn any power it works out that a light side character will use up obscene amounts of force points on dark side powers, and vice versa. So if you want a character to use the force for motivating and healing the squad then you better get them light side fast, but if you just want them to charge in flinging lightning bolts in all directions then it's dark side all the way baby.

Of course since this game is a fully fledged RPG then there's also a lot for the stat heads to get their teeth into. Moving through the game you'll gain access to a wide variety of weapons including blasters, clubs, vibro-blades (<i>for all intents and purposes this is a sword made of a material known as cortosis, the only material a light sabre can't cut through</i>), and of course the light sabres themselves. Each of these come in both single and double handed varieties, and can be duel wielded for added power at a reduction in accuracy. You can teach your character to become a master duel wielder, but this means less experience to spend on other useful abilities. There are also constant armor upgrades to be found in every shop, some improving accuracy, others strength, and some offering a high level of protection but at the expense of inhibiting your force powers. All of these can also be upgraded with additional items that you can find too, which ensures that the games replayability factor is nearly limitless.

The final thing that marks this game as a classic of the RPG genre is the simple fact that it has the single greatest RPG battle system yet seen. Like the first game <b>The Sith Lords</b> uses a combination of real time and turned based battles. You can take up to 3 characters into a battle and you will control one of them and have the complete freedom of movement that a hack-n-slash game would have provided, but you still get to tactfully select your attack from a series of options and take turns to use those attacks. You can, for some of the bigger opponents, keep pausing the game in order to tactfully use all of your party <b>Final Fantasy</b> style, or you can simply let them do their thing while you control the one character and let the whole Star Wars atmosphere draw you in.

Where that atmosphere really shines is in the games audio department. If you've seen the films then you know what to expect, from the moment the crawling text rolls along to the Star Wars theme music you know where you stand. After that the sounds of blaster fire and vrooming light sabre duels ensure that this is far more atmospheric than the usual swords and sandals type of RPG. It's the voice acting that really does it, being a massive improvement over the whiny irritating cast of the original. Now you have Atton's sarcastic inflections, Krea's cold and calculating training, and Darth Sion's Robert Carlyle impression, it's just all absolutely superb.